SOPA protest rattles Congress

Some of the early supporters of two controversial online piracy bills are having second thoughts — and other undecided lawmakers are pledging opposition — in the wake of an Internet protest Wednesday by websites like Wikipedia, Reddit, Mozilla and thousands more.

The Senate PROTECT IP Act, which began the day with 40 official sponsors, today lost at least four of them: Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) John Boozman (R-Ark.) and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah). Hatch is a major defection, as the senator is the co-chairman of the Congressional International Anti-Piracy Caucus.

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As a key procedural vote in the chamber scheduled for Tuesday draws near, other Democrats and Republicans who never signed onto the proposal are also demanding changes before the Senate moves forward. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), for one, vowed to join a promised filibuster of the bill.

In the House, the Stop Online Piracy Act has lost at least two of the 30 sponsors it had entering the protest: Rep. Ben Quayle (R-Ariz.) withdrew his support on Tuesday, and a spokesman for Rep. Lee Terry said the Nebraska Republican planned to do the same on Wednesday.

The apparent catalyst for the defections was a wide-scale blackout of popular Web destinations such as Wikipedia, Reddit, Mozilla and countless others. They replaced their home pages with pleas to visitors to fight the bills.

The resulting deluge of complaints to members of Congress slowed down official congressional Web pages and jammed up some Hill offices’ phone systems.

But the most direct consequence is the loss of congressional support.

Rubio, Blunt and Boozman are no longer backing PIPA, and a fellow sponsor, Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), has opted to walk a fine line — saying he wants the bill to be reworked, but not revoking his sponsorship. Hatch, however, issued the most direct statement of all — promising explicitly to vote against cloture next week.

“Given the legitimate vocal concerns,” he said, “it is imperative that we take a step back to allow everyone to come together and find a reasonable solution.”